The woman at the helm of Donald Trump’s criminal defense team is a registered Democrat and dogged litigator who once represented a New York State Senator who raided his own charity to buy Broadway tickets, sushi and a Bentley.
Susan Necheles — a member of the legal triumvirate defending the former president, along with Joe Tacopina and Todd Blanche — was the attorney for New York State Senate Majority leader Pedro Espada in a 2010 corruption case that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called “the most outrageous abuse of public office I have ever seen.”
Espada, a Bronx Democrat, was convicted and served five years in prison for his role in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his Soundview Health Center.
Necheles, now 64, helped win an acquittal for the disgraced former pol in a campaign finance case.
They had politics in common: Necheles voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to public filings.
Necheles was seen sitting next to and conferring with Trump during his arraignment Tuesday.
“She’s an outstanding lawyer,” said Frederick Hafetz, who worked with Necheles on the Espada case.
Hafetz hired Necheles as an associate in his criminal law firm and then made her a partner. “She’s intelligent, tenacious, extremely hard-working and quite creative.”
A legal insider told The Post of Trump’s legal team: “Todd Blanche is the maestro.of the defense team. Necheles is the research person who will, in all probability, author and research the prevailing case law in making the motion to dismiss the charges.
“Blanche will oversee the arguments to be made in the motion. Tacopina has been relegated to assisting Blanche and doing minor legal issues.”
Trump’s legal team allegedly has little time for Tacopina, who is fond of sharp suits and appearing on television talk shoes.
Sources recently told Rolling Stone that they allegedly consider Tacopina a “loudmouth” and “dumb.”
“Tacopina is being antagonistic with the press and should keep it down as he is offensive in his demeanor,” the legal insider told The Post Tuesday. “It’s unbelievable that Trump, who has had to make major decisions as president to protect US citizens in all types of issues, both foreign and domestic, has failed to vet Tacopina and his slimy and questionable reputation — both legally and socially.”
Necheles, on the other hand, is much more well respected in legal circles.
In addition to Espada, Hafetz and Necheles also won acquittals for their clients in campaign finance cases in Puerto Rico and New York. In 2010, their client, Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Nora Anderson, was acquitted of illegally funneling $250,000 in her run for the bench.
Necheles and Hafetz parted “amicably” a few years ago when Necheles left to start her own boutique criminal defense firm in Midtown Manhattan, Hafetz said.
Necheles grew up in Massachusetts, raised by a mother of Puerto Rican origin and a father of German-Jewish descent.
She attended the University of Rochester, graduating with a degree in history in 1980, according to her LinkedIn profile. She then enrolled in Yale law school and was the editor of the Yale Law Review.
Following stints in a corporate law firm and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, where she worked as an assistant district attorney, Necheles turned to criminal law, working as an associate in Hafetz’s firm for six years before becoming partner, Hafetz said.
More recently, Necheles defended Seagrams heiress Clare Bronfman, who was convicted in 2020 of using her family’s liquor fortune to finance the NXIVM sex cult in upstate New York.
Bronfman was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
Years earlier, Necheles represented Jacob Reichberg, a top donor to former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who was accused of bribing cops with access to hookers.
Reichberg was convicted in 2019 along with fellow donor and pal Jona Rechnitz.
Earlier in her career, Necheles was also counsel to the late Genovese crime family underboss Venero Mangano, who was known as Bennie Eggs because his mother owned an egg store.
Necheles joined the Trump world a few years ago when she was hired to represent the Trump Organization in a tax fraud case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney.
Last year, prosecutors won a conviction, and the real estate company was ordered to pay $1.6 million in fines.